"Anyone in love with the
history of Chicago ... must have this book."
— Leigh Bienen, co-author of Crimes of the Century

"A fascinating and strange tale ... I am still
haunted."
— John Gilmore, author of Severed

On May 1, 1897,
Louise Luetgert disappeared. Although no body was found,
Chicago police arrested her husband Adolph, the owner of a large sausage
factory, and charged him with her murder. The eyes of the world were still on Chicago following the success of the World’s Columbian Exposition, and the
Luetgert case turned into one of
the first media-fueled celebrity trials in American history.

Newspapers fought one
another for scoops, people across the country claimed to
have seen the missing woman alive, and each new clue led to fresh rounds of
speculation about the crime. Meanwhile, sausage sales plummeted nationwide as
rumors circulated that Luetgert had destroyed his wife’s body in one of his
factory’s meat grinders.

In this narrative history of the Luetgert case, Robert Loerzel brings 1890s
Chicago vividly back to life. He examines not only the trial itself but also the
police department and forensic specialists investigating the case, the reporters
scrambling for details, and the wider society who followed their stories so
voraciously.

Weaving in strange-but-true subplots involving hypnotists, palmreaders,
English con-artists, bullied witnesses, and insane-asylum bodysnatchers,
Alchemy of Bones is more than just a true crime narrative; it is a grand,
sprawling portrait of a city — and a nation — getting an early taste of the
dark, chaotic twentieth century.

Winner of the Reader's
Choice Award at the 2004 Love Is Murder Writers Conference for Best True Crime
Book

Radio interviews with Robert Loerzel are available for
listening on the Web from
WBEZ,
WUIS,
WILL and
KWGS.

Published by the University of Illinois Press.320 Pages, 7 Photographs and 38 Line Drawings.
Paperback: $19.95 / Hardcover: $29.95.
ISBN 0-252-02858-9.

This
Web site is a companion to
Alchemy of Bones,
featuring a wealth of information about the people, places and subjects in
the book —
including many stories, facts and
pictures beyond those in its pages. The
author hopes that this Web site will aid people researching the history of
Chicago in the 1890s, genealogy, and topics such as criminology and
journalism.